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We study the elastic deformations in a cross-linked polymer network filmtriggered by the binding of submicron particles with a sticky surface,mimicking the interactions of viral pathogens with thin films ofstimulus-responsive polymeric materials such as hydrogels. From extensiveLangevin Dynamics simulations we quantify how far the network deformationspropagate depending on the elasticity parameters of the network and theadhesion strength of the particles. We examine the dynamics of the collectivearea shrinkage of the network and obtain some simple relations for theassociated characteristic decay lengths. A detailed analysis elucidates how theelastic energy of the network is distributed between stretching and compressionmodes in response to the particle binding. We also examine the force-distancecurves of the repulsion or attraction interactions for a pair of stickyparticles in the polymer network film as a function of the particle-particleseparation. The results of this computational study provide new insight intocollective phenomena in soft polymer network films and may, in particular, beapplied to applications for visual detection of pathogens such as viruses via amacroscopic response of thin films of cross-linked hydrogels.

Deformation propagation in responsive polymer network films